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'Cube Bricks and Daisy Chains' printed from https://nrich.maths.org/
Ria from Beijing City International School
sent us a very full solution:
In the first example Daisy and Akram were counting in twos.
Akram made the longer chain because he made $6$ sets of twos
($6\times2=12$).
Daisy made only $4$ sets of twos ($4\times2=8$).
In the second example they were counting in fives.
Daisy made two sets of fives ($5\times2=10$) and Akram made $3$
sets ($5\times3=15$).
In the third example Daisy was counting in threes and Akram was
counting in fours.
You can make chains counting in any number. In the picture I've
shown chains with sixes, sevens, eights and nines:
Thank you, Ria, although I wonder whether your
pictures for counting in sixes and sevens are rather similar? Jesse
and Emma from Creston thought that Akram was making a pattern
of blue, yellow, red and green in the final part. Well done
also to Sue-Min and Anna from the Canadian Academy who also
explained their answers clearly.